Sharing your Thanksgiving meal disasters
From undercooked birds to forgotten giblets to flying potatoes
Barbara Adamcik had worked really hard on her first Thanksgiving meal.
Adamcik felt all her diligence — her careful planning, her attention to detail — would pay off with smiles and happy stomachs.
“It was my first turkey, and I was proud of my culinary skills but quickly became mortified when I scooped out the stuffing from inside the turkey along with the turkey’s neck, heart, and gizzards,” said Adamcik of Freemansburg. “Who knew they put that stuff inside the turkey? Obviously, not me.”
Let’s face it, there’s a lot that can go wrong with a Thanksgiving spread. From forgotten giblets to undercooked birds and everything in between, a Thanksgiving feast can turn into a novice’s nightmare or a stress-inducing shocker for skilled home cooks.
But as it is in life, there’s no success without some failure. We asked our readers to share some Thanksgiving fails with the hopes of helping others. We also have some expert advice on how to keep salmonella from joining your Turkey Day feast.
Our readers mostly had trouble remembering about the giblets, which are the heart, liver, gizzard and neck usually wrapped up in a bag and stuffed way back inside a turkey. If you’re the type that wants to make the most of your bird, of course, you can use the giblets to make the gravy or even in your stuffing.
But you have to remember to take them out of the bird first before you start roasting.
Pam Szivos of Bath was just
married and cooking a Thanksgiving meal for her husband’s family. Szivos’ sister offered to help so they started to carve the turkey.
“She looked at me with shock on her face while she pulled out the bag of giblets from the fully cooked turkey. I was mortified,” Szivos wrote in an email. “She laughed it off and turned her body to block everyone’s view of the bird. I was so thankful for her quick thinking. Thanks to her we all enjoyed the meal and no one was the wiser.”
Then there’s the stuff that happens you can’t control, like what happened to Marilyn Musumeci of Weisenberg Township. Fortunately in her case, fate stepped in.
Back in 2014, Musumeci and her spouse were selling their home in White Plains, New York, and moving to what was their weekend home in Pennsylvania, where they had been spending Thanksgiving with their families for many years.
With all the stress involved with moving, Musumeci decided,
in a rare move, to order a catered Thanksgiving meal from Wegmans.
“This turned out to be a prescient move, because mid-afternoon the day before Thanksgiving, it snowed and we lost power in our all-electric home; this meant no heat, no stove, no hot water, etc.,” she said in her email. “Although Met-Ed estimated that power would return by 11 a.m. Thursday, we were skeptical, so I called my brother, John, who was scheduled to come to our home for Thanksgiving dinner, if we could move the dinner — and the seven expected guests, in addition to his family of six — to his home in Annandale, NJ. Of course, he said, “Yes.” So after a long night of no heat, she packed up and grabbed the catered Thanksgiving meal and headed to New Jersey.
“It was a Thanksgiving to remember,” Musumeci said.
Even Morning Call journalists have had a few mishaps. Reporter Molly Billinski said she had prepared potatoes to be mashed —
or so she thought.
“I didn’t boil the potatoes enough. So, when I turned on my mixer to mash said potatoes, they instead flew out of the mixer and all over the counter,” Billinski said.
Forgotten giblets, flying potatoes and unpredictable Mother Nature aside, there are more serious risks with your Thanksgiving meal. The biggest threat to any Thanksgiving is, of course, an underdone bird. No one wants salmonella to be a guest on Turkey Day but you run the risk of accidentally inviting bacteria if you aren’t careful with your bird.
“The bacteria can still thrive if it’s not cooked all the way,” said Beth Somishka, sanitarian with the Bethlehem Health Bureau.
Salmonella causes diarrhea, fever, and stomach cramps. Figure you aren’t doing any Black Friday shopping if salmonella makes an appearance at your Thanksgiving.
The key thing, Somishka said, is that you need to ensure that the turkey is cooked to at least 165 degrees in the thickest part of the breast. You also need to check the temperature under the wing and the innermost part of the thigh so you’re ensuring the whole bird is cooked through. Check all three spots before you decide your bird is ready.
Even before you roast your turkey, you will need to take steps to ensure safety. Keep the bird in the fridge to defrost right up till you’re ready to cook it. Don’t leave it out on the counter to defrost faster because the turkey’s outer layer will be sitting in the danger zone of being between 40°F and 140 °F for far too long to be safe from bacteria.
Speaking of dangers, who wants some salmonella stuffing?
“People don’t realize that stuffing in a turkey can be very dangerous,” Somishka said. “If you’re making stuffing, it’s best to cook in a separate casserole dish.”
What happens is that as the raw turkey is cooking, its juices seep into the porous stuffing, raising the risk of bacteria. If you simply must stuff your turkey, you’ll need to make sure that stuffing is also at least 165 degrees.
Once everyone is finished eating, Somishka said you need to make sure to get all your leftovers put away within two hours to ensure food safety. Of course, we all love Thanksgiving leftovers, but we need to be sure to use them up within four days or stash them in the freezer.